More pulling TV cord, yet staying plugged in via computer

Jazz musician Bill Cunliffe loves television, but he doesn't watch it on a TV set.

"I can watch anything I want, any time I want," he said, "on my bottom-of-the-line Mac PowerBook."

The 53-year-old is one of a growing number of TV viewers who get all their programs via the Internet.

For reasons that include saving money, convenience, personal choice and a hatred of commercials, these viewers are cutting the cord from cable, satellite and telephone suppliers of TV service, even throwing away the rabbit ears and other antennas that brought in free over-the-air broadcasts.

"The idea that you come home and your entertainment choices are dictated on what some entertainment channel decides is not for me," said video game producer Chris Codding, whose apartment has a 52-inch Sony television that's used only for playing video games and viewing DVDs.

There have been no mainstream studies on how many people have cut the cord to established TV program suppliers; the percentage of viewers who have done it is probably small. But there's plenty of evidence that the number of people who are watching TV shows online is growing.

According to a survey released in September by the nonprofit Conference Board, nearly 1 in 4 households in the U.S. have watched television online. Meanwhile, about 20 percent of responders said they were watching less TV delivered through traditional broadcast or paid cable-type providers.

A study by consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates in April found that among people who have watched video online, 25 percent viewed a full-length TV show in that manner. That's up from 15 percent in 2007.

As for cutting out traditional means of watching TV altogether, a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association found that 15 percent of viewers would consider it.

Common among many who have cut the cord is a sense of rebellion, not against TV but against service providers. They believe their way of watching represents the future of TV -- online and on demand.

"The No. 1 factor of why people watch online is convenience," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board consumer research center.

The cable industry knows it could be in for a fight.

"Clearly, this is a growing trend," said Alex Dudley, spokesman for Time Warner Cable, which has 14.6 million subscribers nationwide.

The company, like several other providers, is countering with its own on-demand services. It offers subscribers repeats of TV shows that can be accessed by pressing a few buttons on the remote.

Time Warner also is participating in a test of the TV Anywhere service that would enable subscribers to watch their channels on computers or mobile devices via the Internet.

But online TV has something going for it that cable can't match. For the most part, it's free, at least for now.

"We were paying about $100 a month for cable," said Jaxon Lee, a mobile phone sales manager. "For that we got like a billion channels. But when we were making a move, I asked my wife, 'How many of these shows are we actually watching?'"

Lee, 36, hooked up a media-center computer to the LCD television. They now watch most shows via Hulu, the free, advertising-supported Web service that opened to the public last year. Its owners include industry heavy hitters NBC Universal, News Corp. (which owns the Fox television channels) and Walt Disney Co. (ABC), giving it access to some of the most popular shows.

The popularity of Hulu could be severely tested if the service begins charging fees to watch. Some Hulu executives have said that could happen as early as next year.